Saturated Canary & Mad Men Inspired Digi Post

I am so excited to announce that Krista of Saturated Canary has chosen one of my ideas for her newly designed digis!

I suppose it is no surprise that I was quick to suggest Mad Men. I couldn't be more obsessed with that show and the characters in it. Roger Sterling & Joan Holloway are definitely my favorites, so I was thrilled to see that this lovely stamp had very *ahem* Joan-like qualities.

I really wanted to spend a lot more time designing a sort of Mad Men inspired SMASH* page {if you are not familiar with SMASH*ing I recommend checking out Kellie Winnell's blog and Krista's post here}.

Anyways, yesterday while coaching I got hit... and I mean HIT... square in the nose with a full-on forehand tennis ball. Needless to say, the rest of my day was spent icing my swollen nose and calming the pain with lots of ibuprofen. So I'll just have to post what I had up until that point.

And really, this illustration couldn't come at a better time! This Sunday is the season premier of Mad Men and I'm already planning a big night of it. If I would have known sooner, I may have just made some premier party invites with the image!

So, without further ado, here is the Mad Men digi from Saturated Canary with a few of my own embellishments {because we all know it's not Mad Men without a good martini!}

And here is the best part of the whole post! Krista was nice enough to allow me to open up a contest for you! This Mad Men inspired digi could be yours!

Here is what you'll need to do to enter:

1) Comment on this post sometime between now and Sunday 

{I will close it after the 2-hour Mad Men premier @ 11pm EST}

2) You must be a follower 

{either through Blogger or Facebook}

Good luck! 

And thank you to Krista for this opportunity!

{Giveway Update 03/26/2012}
Winner of the Blanche Giveaway: Alina

The Little Things {Arrested Development}

Today's Little Thing comes with the news that the entire cast and original writers have been confirmed for a new season of Arrested Development.

If you haven't watched this show, I would highly recommend checking it out. The humor is so perfect!

...and that's why you always leave a note.

Things I Love Thursday - January 26, 2012

It is Thursday again! I am thankful that this week is going by so quickly!

Nick and I have plans for the weekend to celebrate his birthday, so I've been anxious for Friday to get here!

Television

◦ I love Portlandia. Fred Armisen's technology spiral sketch so accurately depicts my relationship with my devices. So when I saw this illustration for Portlandia's Season 2 release, I couldn't help but fall in love!

Art & Culture

◦ I love photography {Nick & I were married in a photography gallery!} so I love these images of famous photographers and their most iconic images.

◦ These illustrations, titled "The 27 Club", depict the musicians who died at the age of 27. Who doesn't love a little Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin?

Internet

◦ The new blog design over at moxee. Breanna has done a very beautiful, simple thing and it works perfectly! {Not to mention I'm digging the "YOU ARE A GEM" card in her paper shop!}

◦ The fantastic Abby Kerr tweeted about productivity & planning and shared an incredibly useful link to WorkFlowy. It maps out a To-Do list and helps you keep tasks organized. Typically, I carry around a little notepad and write things down, but I might go totally digital with this.

{...More Little Things}

Celebrating birthdays ∙ Feeling productive ∙ The adorable photo shoot from 2008 with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard ∙ Another successful weigh-in for The Biggest Loser challenge at work {I'm down another 1.6lbs!} ∙ Stumbling across some more really lovely bloggers ∙ Reading so many blogs about Alt Summit and deciding that I want to be there in the future ∙ A close match between Federer & Nadal at the Australian Open  ∙  Knowing tennis season is less than 2 months away

{Photos from MaggieGyllenhaal.net}

Entertainment Review (TV) - Work of Art: The Next Great Artist

At the direction of my cousin, Jake, I spent last evening watching Work of Art: The Next Great Artist. If you haven't heard about the show, it is a reality program that is similar to Project Runway. 14 artists competing against each other in timed challenges, one winner an episode, and one poor sap that gets sent packing.

(If you are at all interested you can watch the episodes here.)

After watching the first two episodes I'm not too sure how I feel about it. My cousin's complaint was that, "it is not what art is about." And while I understand his issue, there is a part of me who is incredibly excited to see artists finally getting some much needed mainstream attention. I also don't find the competitive nature of the show to be too far off from some of the real-life competitions for commissions that have been held throughout time. Granted Ghiberti was never asked to create a postapocolyptic-humanoid-toasteroven-corpse in a post-modern response to consumerism, but one can make some connections (albeit stretched) to similar competitive endeavors.

Anyways, I suppose that my major concern is just this... while there seems to be some serious talents amongst the group, right now it's just plain boring. And the bullshit and drama isn't even the bad kind of reality television people are drawn to watch because it is just so BAD. Pull out some of the mediocre characters, and lose some of the annoying critics and perhaps I'll be back.